August 2012 home sales show improvement

41,280 homes were sold in August 2012, up 4.5% from July 2012, and up 9% from one year earlier. This August increase in home sales marks the first improvement after two months of declines, and is a marked improvement from the flat sales volume experienced this time last summer.

Here are some other key factors controlling California’s housing market:

Absentee homebuyers: to hold or to fold?

Absentee homebuyers (a group generally composed of speculators, buy-to-let investors and renovation contractors) accounted for 27% of Southern California (SoCal) August sales, remaining level with July 2012, and near the record high of 30% set in February 2012. Absentee buyersA group composed of speculators, buy-to-let investors and renovation contractors. made up 23% of Bay Area homebuyers in August 2012, slightly higher than July 2012 and up from 21% one year earlier.

Sales of single family residences (SFRs) to owner-occupant homebuyers, the core demographic for a sustainable recovery, remained low.